The killers rocked Thunderbird Stadium last week in Vancouver, BC. Self opened for them, getting the crowd hyped up for the awesome show to come.
Before Self took the stage it was lit up with purple lights shining down, once the lights in the stadium dimmed the stage filled with smoke and self walked on and took their spots. Lead singer, Matt Mahaffey, yelled out to the crowd “how are we doing tonight!” the crowd erupted with yells and whistles in response. They played songs they wrote back in the 90’s showing off funky tunes from the keyboard played by Chris James and Mac Burrus. Mahaffey had crazy energy onstage running around and jumping up and down getting the crowd to join in just to give them a taste of what was to come. On their last song the bass was so intense you could feel it in your chest and they ended with a bang leaving the whole stadium buzzing.
After Self left the stage there was about a half an hour break to change the settings on the stage. The stadium by this time had filled with twice as many people. The lights dimmed once again and the whole stadium filled with cheers. The Killers took their spot’s on stage and the back screen lit up with a visual of dark clouds moving through the sky and everyone in the stadium was on their feet. Lead singer, Brandon Flowers, had his mic behind a prop which was the male sign and the rest of the band were behind him on pedestal like stands that were all different heights so you could see each band member clearly.
They opened with their song “Wonderful Wonderful” off their most recent album “Wonderful Wonderful” which came out back in September. The whole stadium couldn’t stand still and Flowers amazing vocals rang threw the stadium and everybody in the audience was in awe.
“Somebody Told Me” was a great performance. As I looked around the stadium I didn’t see one person who wasn’t dancing and the entire crowd was singing along. Flowers would hold up his mic up at the chorus and put his hand to his ear as the crowd took over. Flowers would join back in standing a the very edge of the stage engaging with the people at the front.
Flowers was amazing with interacting with the crowd and he did something I thought was so amazing. He looked down into the crowd and saw only one person holding up a sign and Flowers asked security to let the guy up on the stage. Once he was up Flowers gave him a big hug and asked his name, Alex, and then next thing we knew Alex was playing the piano and the band slowly joined in while Flowers started singing. Alex looked ecstatic and I can’t imagine how life changing that was to be able to play with The Killers like that in front of tons of people.
The songs and the performance kept getting better and better as the night went on. Flowers kept getting the crowd to sing with him, clap along, and at one point the whole stadium had their arms waving back and forth with Flowers as he was holding the mic to the crowd with everyone singing along to “All These Things I’ve Done”.
Once the night came to an end they closed with “Mr.Brightside” and the minute that first note hit the entire stadium erupted with cheers and whistles. The stage had a crazy light show going on that matched with the music and confetti was exploding from the stage. As the song ended Flowers took a bow, waved goodbye, and left the stage and the other band members followed behind him, except for the drummer, Ronnie Vannucci. He was doing an insane drum solo that ended the night with a bang. After, he threw his sticks into the crowd, thanked everyone for coming, and left the stage.
Overall it was definitely a night to remember for Vancouver. There was never a dull moment and being able to experience them live was out of this world.